June 16, 2019 / 2 Comments on The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
(Notre-Dame de Paris) Victor Hugo 1831 (Love for a young gypsy woman allows an ugly man to rise above the world’s hatred of him, and to show his inner beauty). Beauty and beast stories are thousands of years old. Here is how they generally go: a beautiful maiden somehow must associate with a character of […]
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June 23, 2015 / Leave a comment
(Le Petit Prince) Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1943 (A little man leaves his tiny planet to explore the universe, only to discover that the most important things in life can be found anywhere.) As hackneyed as the term “gem” is in the description of short and delightful books, The Little Prince has got to be the epitome. What […]
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December 16, 2014 / Leave a comment
John Donne d. 1631 (An earthy, imaginative, thoughtful soul reveals his view of love, steeped in metaphor and emotion.) Crop of Francesca da Rimini with her lover Paolo, by the Scottish painter William Dyce (1837). This painting can be seen in the National Galleries of Scotland. Though not quite as scandalous as Paolo, who is here courting his brother’s […]
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November 18, 2014 / Leave a comment
(Une nuit de Cléopâtre) Théophile Gautier 1838 (A young hunter is willing to die to be with queen Cleopatra for just one evening.) Word for word, this little novella (three times the length of a typical short story at about 12,700 words) probably paints the most vibrant description of ancient Egypt in all of literature. […]
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November 12, 2014 / 2 Comments on “On Taste”
Edmund Burke 1759 (What does it really mean for an opinion to be “a matter of taste”?) When we say “it’s just a matter of taste”, a bold and negative message lies behind the word “just”. Whether intended or not, the word creates a whiff of denigration. We discredit the thing we’re describing, reducing it […]
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The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
June 16, 2019 / 2 Comments on The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
(Notre-Dame de Paris) Victor Hugo 1831 (Love for a young gypsy woman allows an ugly man to rise above the world’s hatred of him, and to show his inner beauty). Beauty and beast stories are thousands of years old. Here is how they generally go: a beautiful maiden somehow must associate with a character of […]
Continue Reading →